Metro-North has a long way to go on safety, officials say

Rob Varnon

Published 10:15 pm, Thursday, June 12, 2014

Metro-North Railroad President Joseph Giulietti talks to commuters at Steam Cafe, which is the restored train station in Westport, Conn. on Thursday April 24, 2014. Giulietti and other Metro-North staffers came out to address concerns of commuters in a question and answer session.
Photo: Christian Abraham

STAMFORD -- Metro-North completed a 100-day turnaround plan this week with still a lot of work left to do to improve safety and reliability, according to top state and federal officials, and the railroad's own president.

"Much has been accomplished in the four months since I became Metro-North's president," said Joseph J. Giulietti, in a letter to New York and Connecticut governors. "Some will say much remains to be done. I agree. For although we have already seen signs of progress, rebuilding our safety culture and improving our service reliability will take time and sustained commitment."

Giulietti, who was hired to lead the railroad shortly after a series of accidents, created a 100-day plan to improve safety and performance.

He reported Tuesday that 21 of the 32 initiatives of that plan have been fully implemented, including the creation of a new inspection division and new training protocols. How many workers have undergone new training was not immediately available Thursday.

Last year, five people died as a result of accidents on Metro-North. In December, a train derailed in the Bronx, N.Y., killing four passengers. In May, just 11 days after a train derailment in Bridgeport sent 70 people to the hospital, a track worker was killed in West Haven due to an operating error. But these weren't the first deaths on the rails. Three other Metro-North workers were killed from 2002 to 2009, including one in Stamford.

A Federal Railroad Administration report blasted Metro-North after the derailments for creating a culture that placed on-time performance ahead of safety. The FRA itself has come under fire in Congress for its oversight of the railroad.

A Hearst investigation found that the FRA fined the railroad about $220,000 between 2004 and 2013 after uncovering thousands of infractions, some of which were fatal. The railroad did lose a court case in 2007 and was ordered to pay $4.3 million to the estate of a worker killed in Stamford, and in 2004, it reached a $5.5 million settlement with the estate of a worker killed in New Haven.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy joined U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, both D-Conn., in lauding Giulietti's efforts to turn the railroad around, but was adamant that more must be done to restore confidence in the system.

"During a meeting in my office in February, I asked the (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) to pull together this plan so that riders can get a clear sense of what they're doing to restore confidence in the railroad," Malloy said in a prepared statement. "While it's taken longer than I would have liked, I think they are taking a number of steps that will enhance the daily operations and make the railroad safer. But even with these changes, the MTA has much work to do to improve their performance."

Malloy said the railroad needs to improve its communication with commuters and local officials.

Blumenthal was much more critical of the railroad's efforts.

"One hundred days ago, Metro-North made a public promise to commuters to adopt concrete measures to restore safety and reliability to its rail line," the senator said. "Unfortunately, that promise is far from fulfilled. Despite positive steps by new leadership and some progress in changing the culture of mismanagement, continued service disruptions and delays remind us how much is yet to be done to restore public confidence."

Blumenthal said Metro-North's New Haven Line is in crisis and needs significant, immediate investment, noting that the failures of the so-called Walk Bridge, in Norwalk, punctuate the problem.

The bridge failed to close twice in the last two weeks and brought the state's transportation system to a near standstill as people flooded the highways in cars or were stranded at rail stations.

The railroad acknowledged it has had problems since the derailment that have made it difficult to highlight the improvements it is making. Besides the problems with the bridge in Norwalk, it also had a fire at a control facility in Greenwich that halted the trains and slowed travel through Greenwich's Cos Cob section for days, and had overhead catenary wires in Greenwich pulled down accidentally by a contractor.

That added to disruptions in the last year from a ruptured power cable and a computer problem that shut down the system in late January.

"I am fighting for federal funding for our bridges, tracks, equipment and other decaying infrastructure, but more money must be matched by better management," Blumenthal said. "There is no excuse for further delay in the adoption and implementation of further life saving measures by Metro-North, including use of alerters, cameras and confidential close-call reporting, as well as immediate measures to improve on-time performance. These deficiencies have accumulated over decades, and a heightened sense of urgency and energy is needed now to correct them."

The Metro-North report noted it is still implementing some of the things Blumenthal is urging. Since it started the 100-day plan, it has increased safety department staffing by 50 percent.

Like Malloy, Blumenthal said the railroad needs to do a better job of communicating with the public when there are problems. He did say he appreciates the efforts of the workers over the last 100 days.

Himes, who said he has been meeting with federal transportation officials about funding for infrastructure, urged the railroad to act more quickly.

"Metro-North's leadership is taking steps in the right direction, but it still has much more work to do to improve the railroad's safety and efficiency," Himes said. "I'm pleased that the leadership is making some progress in changing a culture that tolerated poor performance and lax enforcement of safety procedures. But the service disruptions of the last few weeks show that Metro-North must act faster to improve its communications with passengers."